Religion Didn't Drive Ex-CTA Worker's Vax Refusal, Jury Hears

By Celeste Bott

A former Chicago Transit Authority electrician hasn't met his burden of proving religious discrimination was behind his termination when he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and his refusal was based on personal preference and health and safety concerns about the jab, an Illinois federal jury heard Thursday.

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Illinois Atty Gets 2½ Years For Tax Fraud, Scripting Testimony

By Lauraann Wood

A former Chicago attorney who covered up $1 million in payments to his romantic interest and tried scripting his bookkeeper's initial trial testimony has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

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Ex-State Farm VP Sues Activists Over Secretly Recording Date

By Dorothy Atkins

A former State Farm executive has sued political activist James O'Keefe and a woman who lied about her intentions to date him, claiming they violated Illinois' eavesdropping statute by secretly recording his comments about State Farm's diversity efforts and rate hikes and later posting misleading videos of him, costing him his job.

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SkyWest Flight Attendants Want To End 10-Year Wage Case

By Irene Spezzamonte

SkyWest Airlines' flight attendants urged an Illinois federal court to dismiss the remainder of their suit accusing the airline of not paying them overtime and other wage violations, saying it would be the best way to end their almost 10-year-long case.

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Ill. High Court Says Murder Case Can't Be Given To New Judge

By Parker Quinlan

A divided Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that appeals courts in the state are not allowed under the high court's rules to send cases back to trial with instructions to reassign the case to a new judge without proving either bias or prejudice from the prior judge.

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IP Notebook: 'Lazy Reaction' Vids, Lafufus, Proud Boys TM

By Ivan Moreno

In this round of emerging copyright and trademark issues, Law360 delves into "lazy reaction video" lawsuits from YouTube creators who accuse others of pilfering video views, and the attempt by the creator of Labubu plush dolls to get ahead of the "Lafufu" knockoff craze.

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EPA Backs Truck-Makers' Bid To Block Calif. Emissions Regs

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday joined truck-makers in asking a California federal court to immediately block implementation of the state's emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks.

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Brief

Energy Dept. Extends Pa. Plant's Lifespan, Citing Power Risks

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday ordered PJM Interconnection and Constellation Energy to continue operating a Pennsylvania power plant that was supposed to have closed in May.

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CBP, ITC Say Masimo Suit Over Apple Watch Ruling Misplaced

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. International Trade Commission and U.S. Customs and Border Protection balked at Masimo's request that a D.C. federal court temporarily block a ruling allowing imports of redesigned Apple Watches despite the companies' patent dispute, saying it's seeking relief in the wrong places.

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Series

Coaching Cheerleading Makes Me A Better Lawyer

At first glance, cheerleading and litigation may seem like worlds apart, but both require precision, adaptability, leadership and the ability to stay composed under pressure — all of which have sharpened how I approach my work in the emotionally complex world of mass torts and personal injury, says Rashanda Bruce at Robins Kaplan.

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Law360 Pulse Exclusive: The Billable Hour

In this package, Law360 Pulse explores the demand for rainmakers, the continued increase of hourly rates and whether artificial intelligence will finally kill the billable hour. For all Law360 readers, click to access a sample story: Why This Small-Firm Lawyer Charges $3,000 Per Hour.

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JAG Corps Sent To DC To Fill 'Critical Vacancies'

By Courtney Bublé

Military attorneys are being sent to prosecute crimes in Washington, D.C., as the Trump administration seeks to beef up prosecutions in the nation's capital as part of the federal surge of law enforcement.

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Q&A

'Be Careful,' New Mich. Chief Judge Tells Attys When Using AI

By Danielle Ferguson

Just weeks into the job, the new chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan is navigating challenges like an uptick in cases and the need for another magistrate judge, and has a word of warning for attorneys using artificial intelligence in their practice.

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Analysis

M&A Attys Hand Tasks To 'Machines' In Careful Embrace Of AI

By Al Barbarino

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a back-office tool in mergers and acquisitions legal work, but is increasingly embedded in core deal processes that help attorneys manage due diligence, draft agreements and assess risk.

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DOJ Targets BigLaw, Big Tech For Antitrust 'Gamesmanship'

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice's top antitrust official singled out technology platforms and the BigLaw attorneys who represent them Friday for "gamesmanship" by hiding key information from merger and conduct investigators, and announced a special task force "to tackle abuses that arise in our investigations."

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Fifth Circuit vacated a pair of Biden-era regulations aimed at bolstering transparency in the short-selling market.

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Panel Nixes Buzbee Win Against Atty Who Aided Campaign

By Madison Arnold

A Texas state appeals court has reversed a $765,000 summary judgment awarded to personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee in a dispute with an attorney who said she was never paid for her contributions to his 2019 Houston mayoral campaign.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Is AI killing the billable hour — here's what general counsel need to know about how the use of artificial intelligence is affecting law firms' billing model. Anthropic has agreed to a deal to end copyright suits brought by authors who said their works were illegally used to train the company's large language model. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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DOJ Swears In 3 New Board Of Immigration Appeals Members

By Britain Eakin

The Executive Office for Immigration Review announced Friday that three new Board of Immigration Appeals members — Sheila E. Gallow, Marcos Gemoets and Kathleen K. Volkert — were sworn in during a ceremony on Thursday.

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Colorado Law Firm Faces Class Action Over Data Breach

By Zach Dupont

A Colorado law firm was hit with a proposed class action in federal court after a Utah woman claimed that the firm didn't take ample measures to protect the personal information of more than 5,000 people, which was stolen in a data breach earlier this year.

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Scores On July Bar Exam Rise Amid Dip In Test Takers

By Tracey Read

The number of examinees passing the multistate bar exam in July continued to gain momentum, with near record highs seen this summer over the past 12 years, according to an announcement from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

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Exclusive

'I'm Flabbergasted': Fla. Atty's Accusers Rip Bar For Inaction

By Phillip Bantz

More than a year after it began receiving complaints that a Florida lawyer was ghosting clients, the state bar has yet to take action — highlighting what experts call a slow-moving process that can fail to keep pace with expansive alleged frauds.

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Law360 Names Attys Who Moved Up The Firm Ranks In Q2

A promotion to partner or election to practice group chair means a slew of new responsibilities and also lots of well-deserved recognition. Law360 reveals the list of attorneys whose commitment to legal excellence earned them highly coveted spots in the law firm leadership ranks. Find out if your old legal friends — or rivals — moved up in the second quarter of the year.

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Hub Hires: Prince Lobel, Rubin And Rudman, Weil

By Chris Villani

The dog days of summer did little to slow the churn in the Boston legal market. Prince Lobel added a veteran cybersecurity lawyer, Rubin and Rudman made a pair of partner hires, and Weil added more attorneys from Latham.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Prosecco DOC Consortium bring an intellectual property claim against a distributor, the Serious Fraud Office bring a civil recovery claim against the ex-wife of a solicitor jailed over a £19.5 million fraud scheme, and law firm Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen LLP sue its former client, the bankrupt Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Split Fed. Circ. Backs Limits On Presidential Tariff Powers

By Hailey Konnath

The Federal Circuit held Friday that President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs were improperly imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which it said makes no mention of "tariff," "duties" or "tax."

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